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During a Feb. 18 news conference at the International Defense Exhibition (IDEX), Sergey Chemezov, CEO of Russian state-owned holding conglomerate Rostec (Moscow, Russia) — who has launched an audit of the program after assuming ownership of the program from United Aircraft Corp. (UAC, Moscow, Russia) — reportedly claimed the delay was triggered by U.S. sanctions on production facilities and suppliers.

The sanctions are said to have prevented Hexcel (Stamford, Conn., U.S.) and Toray (Tokyo, Japan) from supplying composite materials for the aircraft and will likely cause disruption at the aircraft’s final assembly site in Irkutsk, Siberia. According to Chemezov, Rostec has commissioned Rosatom (Moscow, Russia) to develop and qualify replacement composite materials. He also stated that although delivery of PW1400G engines for the first batch of MC-21s is still expected from Pratt & Witney (East Hartford, Conn., U.S.), Rostec subsidiary United Engine Corp. is also working on its PD-14 turbofan as an alternative engine.